And the Reds' managing director is keen to see the club regain its place in the top 10 of European football's 'rich list' sooner rather than later.

Liverpool were listed 12th on Deloitte's latest list, published in January. It is the first time the Reds have been outside the top 10 in 14 years, with the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Juventus and cash-rich Paris St Germain all stealing a march.

Ayre, though, believes a return to European football, together with the club's planned re-development of Anfield, should help them climb the rankings before too long.

He said: “It is serious in the sense that we are Liverpool FC and we know what good looks like. We’ve been there and we expect to be the best we can be.

“But you have to take a reasonable amount of comfort from the fact that we know why we are 12th. We are not playing European football and that’s at the heart of it. We have a stadium that doesn’t allow us the capacity that our demands dictate.

“So we know why, and we are doing all we can to address that. We are doing what we can in terms of European football by addressing it on the pitch and we are all hoping we can get back in the Champions League.

“Brendan and the team at the club have all put a fantastic effort in to try and win us that prize and get us there. And if we got Champions League football and were enjoying Champions League revenues I think that would have put us 8th in that Deloitte league this year.”

He added: “And then if you look at our proposals and our efforts to try and stay at Anfield and improve the capacity there, then with the sort of capacities we’re aiming for and the resultant revenues we think would come from that then we actually think that would end us getting somewhere about fifth or sixth.

“Those two fixes, not insignificant challenges, would put us very much back at the forefront. You know our commercial revenue is almost second to none in that regard, we really do battle at the top end of the league in that sense. So it’s about fixing those other parts.

“But we are aware of them and everybody at the football club from the owners, myself, Brendan and the team, everybody is focused on those two prizes.

"We continue to feel very positive about where we are with the stadium objectives, but at the same time we continue to be very measured about it.

"We are in good shape and perhaps the best message we can give to the fans is that our timelines that we set out to achieve this are on track. We are not behind."

Their turnover, though, stood at a record £206.2m – a rise of nine per cent – and Ayre says that figure is largely down to significant improvements in the club's commercial revenue, where their key partnerships portfolio continues to grow.

“We have seen the various public announcements we make about that, just in terms of the key new partnerships that our commercial group develop; the improvement of our retail business globally and we are continuing to grow our media business and other elements.

“So we’ve invested – this ownership group have invested – a huge amount of time, effort, expertise and money into our commercial activity and it continues, month to month, year to year, to bear fruit.

“So that’s the core. And obviously other revenue increases come from media revenue growth. In the core, our commercial activity is what drives it.”

He added: “The owners have been very supportive in getting our debt figure down. We continue to get support from the ownership injecting cash but also in managing our business in a much stronger way and repositioning our debt with the banks.”

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Alastair Machray

Alastair Machray was appointed editor of The Liverpool Echo in 2005 and is also editor-in-chief of Trinity Mirror Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales. He is a former editor of The Daily Post (Wales and England) and editor-in-chief of the company's Welsh operations. Married dad-of-two and keen golfer Alastair is one of the longest-serving newspaper editors in the country. His titles have won numerous awards and spearheaded numerous successful campaigns.